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Kyle Stanley in a good place

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Forgive Kyle Stanley if he missed most of the action while watching last year's Super Bowl. While the New York Giants were pulling out another Super Bowl win over the New England Patriots,

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Forgive Kyle Stanley if he missed most of the action while watching last year's Super Bowl. While the New York Giants were pulling out another Super Bowl win against the New England Patriots, Stanley was staring at something else above the big-screen TV — his over-sized, cardboard winner's check for $1,098,000 from the Waste Management Phoenix Open.

Just a week after leaving Torrey Pines in tears after blowing a three-shot lead on the final hole and then losing in a playoff to Brandt Snedeker at the Farmers Insurance Open, Stanley found redemption in the desert and walked into caddie Jim "Bones" Mackay's Scottsdale home with a smile as large as his expanded bank account.

"After Kyle finished the way he did in San Diego, Phil (Mickelson) reached out to him and spent some time with him during the week, talking about golf, talking about disappointment and success," said Mackay, longtime bagman for Mickelson. "Keegan Bradley and Phil came over to watch the Super Bowl, and we sent Kyle a text telling him to come over if he felt like it. An hour later, he came over and walked in with the check over his head and we ended up putting it above the TV as we watched the end of the game.

"He's not the loudest guy in the room, ever. But there were big smiles. What happened the previous week, he was unbelievably gratified with how things worked out and understandably proud of himself for what he had done."

The long-hitting Stanley, 25, stormed back from an eight-shot deficit with a bogey-free, 6-under 65 in the final round to win the Phoenix Open. The collapse in San Diego — he dunked his third shot from 80 yards into the water and made triple-bogey 8 when a 7 would have sent him to the winner's circle and the Masters — obviously didn't linger very long.

"It's always there, in the back of my mind," said Stanley, who will try to be the first repeat champion here since Johnny Miller in 1975. "Being able to win made it a lot easier to deal with. But you learn so much more from your failures than you do when you succeed. The learning experience was great for me — it made me a lot tougher. And the last round in Phoenix was an eye-opener for me because it showed that if I get things going I can win."

Getting the collapse off his chest helped, too. Long before he made his remarkable comeback in the final round — and earned his invitation to the Masters — Stanley said a key for him was the press conference he had two days before the tournament started.

"It was my opportunity to answer all the questions and get it all out there," said Stanley, now a Scottsdale resident. "It put closure to it in a way. Talking about it was fine. It wasn't difficult for me to do. But it did mean a lot to get it out of the way.

" … I look back on what happened in San Diego and Phoenix and it's helped me so much. It was so hard to take in San Diego, with my parents there. And it was a dream of mine to win out here. It was a difficult time, but winning the next week pretty special. It obviously was quite a week."